The Harvest Gleaners, Giverny
Description
Theodore Wendel returned to Europe in the fall of 1886 to round out his formal studies at the Academie Julian, but the curriculum’s focus on the figure and Wendel’s inclination toward landscape drew him to the village of Giverny the following summer, joining the first wave of Americans to paint there, including John Leslie Breck, Willard Metcalf and Theodore Robinson. Wendel did not have to stray far from the house the young painters shared to find inspiration in the rustic French landscape and soon abandoned the dark realism of his Munich years for the brighter palette and atmospheric light of Impressionism. The Harvest Gleaners, Giverny clearly demonstrates this transition in Wendel’s approach to landscape and embodies the pastoral theme found in the majority of his Giverny paintings. The early evening rendering of the verdant fields and towering cypresses, and the radiant glow of the waning sunlight peeking from behind the trees, reveal an artist fully engaged in exploring the possibilities of color.
Provenance
By descent through the family of the artist
Inscriptions
Labels
Nassau County Museum of Art / Normandy and Its Artists Remembered: / A 50th Anniversary of the Invasion / June 12, 1994 – September 11, 1994 / Theodore Wendel / The Harvest Gleaners, Giverny, c. 1886-1887 / oil on canvas / 13-1/4” x 16-1/2” / 156.1994.
Exhibitions
- Normandy and Its Artists Remembered: A 50th Anniversary of the Invasion, Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn, New York, June 12 – September 11, 1994
- Bringing to Light: Theodore Wendel, Vose Galleries, Boston, October 19 – December 7, 2019
Literature
Condition
Very good. The painting was recently cleaned and has scattered dots of in-paint in the trees and sky, thin lines near the top and right edges, some specks and thin short lines scattered in the foreground grass, and minor in-paint in the lower right corner.
Frame Details
Description
Theodore Wendel returned to Europe in the fall of 1886 to round out his formal studies at the Academie Julian, but the curriculum’s focus on the figure and Wendel’s inclination toward landscape drew him to the village of Giverny the following summer, joining the first wave of Americans to paint there, including John Leslie Breck, Willard Metcalf and Theodore Robinson. Wendel did not have to stray far from the house the young painters shared to find inspiration in the rustic French landscape and soon abandoned the dark realism of his Munich years for the brighter palette and atmospheric light of Impressionism. The Harvest Gleaners, Giverny clearly demonstrates this transition in Wendel’s approach to landscape and embodies the pastoral theme found in the majority of his Giverny paintings. The early evening rendering of the verdant fields and towering cypresses, and the radiant glow of the waning sunlight peeking from behind the trees, reveal an artist fully engaged in exploring the possibilities of color.
Provenance
By descent through the family of the artist
Inscriptions
Labels
Nassau County Museum of Art / Normandy and Its Artists Remembered: / A 50th Anniversary of the Invasion / June 12, 1994 – September 11, 1994 / Theodore Wendel / The Harvest Gleaners, Giverny, c. 1886-1887 / oil on canvas / 13-1/4” x 16-1/2” / 156.1994.
Exhibitions
- Normandy and Its Artists Remembered: A 50th Anniversary of the Invasion, Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn, New York, June 12 – September 11, 1994
- Bringing to Light: Theodore Wendel, Vose Galleries, Boston, October 19 – December 7, 2019
Literature
Condition
Very good. The painting was recently cleaned and has scattered dots of in-paint in the trees and sky, thin lines near the top and right edges, some specks and thin short lines scattered in the foreground grass, and minor in-paint in the lower right corner.
